Mobile Modernities: The Asian Experience

I found this article particularly interesting for the way Qiu & Thompson (2007) emphasize the need to study Asian mobile modernities. According to them, the emergence of mobile phones has led to formation of multiple modernities in Asia. Each of these modernities takes a different shape and character depending upon the social, cultural and institutional conditions in which they arise. The study of these modernities is very important to build grounded theory at the global level about historical continuity, cultural transformation and social change.

Based on the timing and extent of technological diffusion, Qiu and Thompson (2007), identify four groups of Asian countries on a spectrum. On one end, they put most-modern, advanced, and industrialized societies, such as Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, where mobile penetration has reached saturation. At the other end, are countries with limited mobile communication diffusion, such as Myanmar, Nepal and North Korea. And in between the two extremes, they situate countries such as India, Philippines and Bangladesh, where mobile technology has been deployed for variety of goals both social and commercial. For example, the GrameenPhone project which brought mobile phones to rural Bangladesh. The fourth group comprises of countries such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, characterized by market-driven mobile phone boom and traditional systems such as communism or Islam. In these countries, mobile phones exist as an icon of modernity and globalization and simultaneously becomes entangled with the most ‘traditional’ and local beliefs. For example, the identification of mobile phones with ghosts in Indonesia.

To understand the theoretical implications of “mobile modernities” in Asia, they say, one has to begin with the technology itself, that is the kind of mobile devices and services that are popular and examine the selection, diffusion and appropriation of mobile phones in these societies. Besides, the study of social, institutional and organization structures, the analysis of Asian mobile modernities should also include an understanding of internalized cultural processes which make the mobile phone experiences more meaningful in each of these contexts. They mention three articles – one, on the success of Little Smart in China (Qiu (2007)), second on the State, Power and mobile communications in China (Lu & Weber (2007)) and third, on the issues of cultural interpretation of mobile phones in Malaysia (Wilson & Thang, 2007) which show different perspectives through which mobile modernities can be examined. 

In my next post I will write about some of the examples of Asian mobile modernities which have been studied. If you are aware of any such mobile communities which are worth studying let me know.